January 27, 2015, - 5:36 pm
“Repentant” Auschwitz Commandant’s Grandson On the Wrong Side on Islam
As you may know, today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, and many around the world designate it, “International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” In light of that, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal did a front page story on Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz and one of the Nazis’ most brutal and wicked mass murderers. The grandson says he’s done and continues to do penance for his grandfather’s sins. But he’s also on the wrong side of Islam and fails to connect the dots. And, unfortunately, the politically correct Simon Wiesenthal Center is applauding him for opposing anti-Islam marches.
When Auschwitz commemorates the 70th anniversary of its liberation on Jan. 27, the ceremonies will include an unlikely attendee: the grandson of the camp commandant who was held responsible for 1.1 million deaths there. Rainer Hoess, 49 years old, has grappled with the curse of his bloodline since his teens. He has tattoos of a Star of David and of the Auschwitz numbers of several survivors he has met. . . . Mr. Hoess plans to meet survivors and circulate a petition against extremism and neo-Nazism. There will be no mistaking his family legacy: At camp’s edge stands the wooden gallows where his grandfather, Rudolf Hoess, was hanged in 1947 for his crimes.
“I know my heritage. I can’t change it,” says Mr. Hoess. “It’s more effective to use the name and show that the idea that evil is in the blood—these things the Nazis said—is wrong.” Mr. Hoess’s path has taken him to unusual lengths. He has made it his full-time occupation to use his name as a weapon against what it once represented. He speaks at 70 schools a year, helps lead an anti-extremist group called Loud Against Nazis and backs an anti-bigotry rap group, among other projects. In his talks, Mr. Hoess describes his family’s history and appeals for tolerance, urging young people to reject bigotry of all kinds. He often warns Europe is seeing a resurgence of extremism, in recent weeks criticizing the anti-Islam Pegida movement in Germany.
Um, Islam IS extremism, stupid. Yes, a tiny portion of those at the anti-Islam rallies in Germany may be bigots or extremists, the vast majority are realists, sounding the alarm. They don’t want their country, once a willing participant in the Third Reich, to become the Islamic Reich. They make the proper connection: of Nazis to Islam, the connection this Hoess person fails epically to make. Apparently, Hoess is ignorant that his grandfather’s deadly movement was tied to Islam at the core–that Haj Amin Al-Husseini, then the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (and a Yasser Arafat relative), visited Hitler repeatedly, helped him design the Final Solution, and urged him to speed it up and extend it to the Middle East and North Africa (to which it did extend to some extent).
Hoess shouldn’t be criticizing the anti-Islam protests in Germany. He should be leading them. If he wants to see real bigotry, he should check out Germany’s anti-Israel marches (dominated by Muslims).
Maybe his wrong-headed view on Islam has something to do with his sincerity and motives.
Last summer, I watched the DVD of the documentary, “Hitler’s Children
Some challenge Mr. Hoess’s sincerity, saying he trades on his name for personal gain. Israeli journalist Eldad Beck, a grandson of survivors, appeared in a documentary with Mr. Hoess but now accuses him of, among other things, trying to profit by selling his grandfather’s belongings to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial. A Yad Vashem spokesman says that in the past Mr. Hoess has suggested it buy his grandfather’s items. Mr. Hoess denies the assertion. “Rainer Hoess is motivated by pure opportunism, which drives him to try to use his last name as a tool for seeking fortune and glory,” Mr. Beck wrote in a 2011 column. In a recent email, Mr. Beck wrote: “I don’t want to have any connection to this criminal.” He declined to comment further.
Mr. Hoess says he has made $23,000 in appearance fees over 10 years and doesn’t refuse to appear if a host can’t pay. He says he subsists largely on proceeds from selling a company he founded. He has an outwardly frugal lifestyle, residing alone in a spare apartment in Weil der Stadt, a small town near Stuttgart.
I don’t know what the truth here is, with regard to Hoess. But I do know the truth regarding Islam. I’ve gotten multiple death, rape, and torture threats from Muslims, all of them attacking me specifically because I’m Jewish
And I know that on that issue alone, Rudolf Hoess isn’t doing much good because he’s on the same side as his Auschwitz Commandant grandfather was.
Connect the dots, stupid.
Six millions ghosts of Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, and many other camps–too many to mention–wail on because they died for nothing if their experience is used to justify the current and future Nazis of Islam.
Message to Rainer Hoess and all those who don’t get it:
Allahu akbar = Sieg heil.
That Was Then . . .
This Is Now . . .
. They are no different from Nazis. Not in how they behave in Europe. Not how they behave in the Middle East. Not how they behave in the United States and the rest of “the West.”
I am the last person to defend criticism of Pegida (or similar organizations throughout Europe, excluding of course, those that are overtly fascist, such as those in Greece and Hungary).
At the same time though, Pegida, and like organizations have been subject to massive criticism by the mainstream media throughout the world, especially by liberals.
I don’t know anything about Hoess’ political views, but he would be breaking sharply from the mainstream in supporting Pegida, something that perhaps he is not ready to do yet. (maybe because his grandfather was in an extreme group, and Pegida is viewed as extreme by so many — and he might be trying to avoid ‘extreme’ groups)
To repeat, I am not defending Hoess, as the criticism of Pegida and like organizations seems to be similar to criticism of grass-roots Republicans here in the U.S. (distinguishing between grass-roots and tea-party), and I agree with your overall assessment of Pegida.
But Hoess has already moved a long way from his grandfather’s views, and perhaps he will continue to move in a positive direction. His ability to move will be enhanced if mainstream opinion becomes more supportive of Pegida and like groups. I blame mainstream opinion more than I do Hoess.
After all, many in the mainstream call Pegida and like groups anti-semitic. As you said, while there are certainly anti-semites and racists in these groups, the overall movement of many of these groups (not all) seems to be away from that.
Little Al on January 27, 2015 at 6:00 pm